sharing a pgp key between multiple users

Hope you can assist. I have a setup where a client uses FTP to place files directly to a shared network drive. The files are encrypted using PGP. I set this up with one user (who I provided the public key of to the client) and she is able to decrypt the files. I would now like to setup two more users to be able to decrypt the same files. I exported the key from the user, making sure I ticked the ''include private key(s)" checkbox. I then imported said key to the second users PGP desktop. However I am unable to open the file and get the following message:-

"It is not possible to decrypt this message because your keyring does not contain usable private key(s) corresponding to any of the above public keys(s)."

I checked the second users PGP and the private key has not imported as it is still stating that the key is a rsa public key and not a key pair.

It sounds like you may have exported the wrong keypair, so you may want to check this possibility. If you are sure you exported the correct keypair, you may want to try exporting it again, again making sure to include the private key in the export. After importing the key, you need to right click on it, select Properties, and set Trust to Implicit. If you can't set Trust to Implicit, it means that you do not have the private key.

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Hi Tom, thanks for your response. There is only one keypair as this is a first time install and only with this one client. This original user is the only one able to decrypt the file, therefore the private key must exist. Is there any reason why the private key would not get exported when exporting the keypair even though it is exported to include the private key? As i have exported the same keypair and still get the same error. I am not sure what else I should be doing. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

I can't think of a reason why the private key would not be included when you select that option. It might be interesting to open the exported key in Notepad, and see if it does include both the public and private key blocks. This could happen if the person importing the key has the private keyring set as Read Only, such as would happen if it is on a CD. The private key would not be exported if it is on a secure card or token.

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So, I deleted the public key block in notepad and imported the key, however once done, it still states its a rsa public key in the description field on the PGP desktop software. I then all the keys and imported this one key again and it came up with the same result. Not sure if the version makes a difference. All the versions that are installed are 10.2.0.

So, I deleted the public key block in notepad and imported the key, however once done, it still states its a rsa public key in the description field on the PGP desktop software. I then deleted all the keys and imported this one key again and it came up with the same result. Not sure if the version makes a difference. All the versions that are installed are 10.2.0.

It doesn't seem likely to be the problem, but I'd suggest checking permissions for the private keyring to make sure the user has Full control. It might also be interesting to try generating a new key, just to make sure there is write access to the private keyring.

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It seems that by importing through the PGP desktop manager it does not import all the keys. I tried just importing directly by double clicking the .asc file and this imported the private key as well. It works this way for everyone. Thanks for your assistance.